This report was prompted by a request from the National Institute of Education (NIE), which in turn stemmed from internal discussion about what to do about the fact that some regions of the country are unserved, or only partially served, by existing educational laboratories. This report was directed to be a description of current laboratories' operations. As a result, it focuses on structural, organizational features on the assumption that lessons could be learned from current organizations that would aid in the planning for new ones. It devotes some space to a discussion of McREL, a new decentralized laboratory. The paper also examines the laboratories' relationships with other organizations. The report concludes that there is a range of research and development functions to be fulfilled; that there currently exist several different kinds of organizations, including regional educational laboratories, whose activities are geared to fulfilling these functions; and that there is no single, best way to think about structuring educational laboratories. (Author/IRT)